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The Claroteidae are a family of catfish (order Siluriformes) found in Africa.<ref name="Nelson">Template:Cite book</ref> This family was separated from Bagridae.<ref name="Geerinckx">Template:Cite journal</ref> However, the monophyly of the family is sometimes contested.<ref name="Otero">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The 9 genera contain 65 known species of claroteids.<ref name="Geerinckx"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The family Auchenoglanididae was formerly considered a subfamily of this family.<ref name="Nelson" /> This group was also often formerly placed in Bagridae.<ref name="Nelson"/> A well-known species is the African big-eye catfish, Chrysichthys longipinnis.
Claroteids have moderately elongated bodies, usually with four pairs of barbels, an adipose fin, and strong pectoral and dorsal fin spines.<ref name="Geerinckx"/>
The earliest known fossil member of the Claroteidae is Nigerium from the Late Paleocene and Early Eocene of Nigeria and Mali. The extinct genus Eaglesomia is also known from the Middle Eocene of Nigeria. The Late Eocene genus Fajumia from Egypt is of uncertain affinities, but most likely belongs to this group. In addition, extinct species of the extant genus Chrysichthys are known from the Middle Eocene of Tanzania, suggesting significant diversification by that point. In contrast to the freshwater nature of modern claroteids, most of these fossil genera are known from marine deposits. Although White (1934) postulated that this may be due to freshwater catfish remains being reworked into marine deposits, Murray & Homes (2021) suggested that these genera may represent extinct marine lineages of the family. This is further supported by the fact that much of catfish biogeography can only be explained through the marine dispersal of groups that are currently found only in freshwater.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
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